Got chills? A few home heating fixes – simple things like closing the damper on a fireplace – can mean big savings. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)

Here are some fun facts to contemplate as colder weather looms this week (forecasts are always a moving target, but some call for a possible rain/snow mix in the wee hours this Friday for Colorado’s Front Range).

World traveler John Ahlenius created a vibrant apartment in Denver. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)

What roof will you be living under when you’re 64? 74? 84? How will you pay for it? Will it treat your knees and hips and ankles kindly, or trip you up when you least expect it? Is that “Silver Sneakers” program really going to keep you fit into your 80s?

Turquoise, pink, black-and-white (and a little purple), grays and yellows – one of the bright spots of the Colorado Fall Home Show, Sept. 6-8, is always the parade of room vignettes put together by members of the American Society of Interior Designers.

This year, the five vignettes really show the difference that a thoughtfully put-together room makes, when lighting, floor coverings, furniture and accessories all work together. (At the quick preview Thursday morning, the designers were even dressed to match their rooms.)

Organizer Emily Odell said that everything — 17,000 pounds of tile, material, glass, metal and more — was gone in just two hours, a first for a Harvest event. Previous Harvests were far more lightly attended, with enough leftovers to donate to RAFT, a teachers’ resource store.

An electric-lawnmower race at a “Mow Down Pollution” event in 2002 (Denver Post file).

Got lawn? Got gas mower? Then you’ve got pollution, gas, oil, and … kind of a pain in the lungs and other body parts. Gas lawn mowers, says the Regional Air Quality Council, are responsible for a tenth of Denver’s ozone precursors.

If you’ve always wanted to go electric, but the price was daunting, you’ll want to get in on the annual Denver “Mow Down Pollution” event May 11 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City. But: There are limited quantities of these discounted electric lawn mowers and they go quickly, so you’ve got to move it, move it, to get one.

Flummoxed by the deceptively difficult task of changing a light bulb? Droll Youtube tutorial explains how to change a light bulb, and helpfully illustrates all the noob mistakes you don’t want to make.

Salvaged wood does not get much hipper than the lumber from 14 bowling lanes that Repurposed Materials acquired from a retired bowling alley in Idaho. Check out those insane markers on the maple wood!

How cool would those be featured in a counter, a table, a hallway floor, a desk, a bar top (like the one at Root Down), or even as wall art?
Repurposed Matereials owner Damon Carson says that since the bowling alley wood arrived on March 19, he’s “had more interest in this lumber than anything we’ve ever stocked before. People are unbelievably enthusiastic about this stuff.”

Supplies limited. Act now. Then email Damon photographs of the new incarnation of the old bowling lanes, and he’ll post the images on the website.

Volunteers with Heroes at Home tackle an interior painting job in 2012. (Seth A. McConnell, YourHub)

It was grand to learn from Elana Ashanti Jefferson’ reporting last Saturday that I did a few things right on my exterior paint job, and get all tanked up on advice for my many upcoming interior paint jobs.

But we have to interrupt this list of painterly advice for a news flash: Free paint!

Becky Hensley is the co-founder of Share Denver - a community craft space in Park Hill. She's also the proud Ninja-in Chief of the Denver Craft Ninjas -- a women’s crafting collective dedicated to keeping the DIY spirit alive through laughter, shared skills, and cocktails.

Colorado native Mark Montano is an international designer, artist, author and television personality. He has appeared on TLC’s “While You Were Out” and “10 Years Younger,” as well as “My Celebrity Home” on the Style Network, “She’s Moving In” on We TV, “The Tony Danza Show” on ABC, and “My Home 2.0” on Fox.